Casseli is something else that is for sure. Hopefully it is not a flash in the pan. I would give him a couple of years still before he reaches alien status. He certainly has that potential.

Compare that to van Niekerk. Comes from a small country, not merica, where everything is the biggest and the best and the fastest. No doubt about it Van Niekerk is not slow, compare his result to Quinn Codys 1st Dakar when the competition was a lot less fierce. Look at his history:

Racing Dakar has been a life long dream for me. From early ages I have watched legends like Kinigadner, Peterhansel and Sala race through the deserts of Africa. Having competed professionally for the last 20 years in South Africa and internationally it is time to live out my dream.

I have competed in, several International Six Day Enduro’s, desert races in South Africa and America, world extreme races like Erzberg, Hell’s Gate, The Tough One, Romaniacs and the Roof of Africa. What’s left? Dakar!

I now finally have the support that is needed for racing Dakar, let’s make it happen.

Okay not bad international and national experience. In many ways as meteoric as Casseli.

The only difference is Casseli has won a couple of stages now, which in itself is nothing short of stunning. But I will be watching Riaan with interest, because I believe he has got the navigation well under the belt, so we may see his speeds picking up in the next year or two as well.

Its one thing to be super fast, but when you look at what separates the aliens you realize that it is consistency first, and then speed. So that to me matches up the two competitors quite well, each with his own strengths and weaknesses.

Thx Neil The LEG

Having raced against Riaan (he passed me) and seeing him on TT at Nationals, he is SUper consistent.

At CP2 after 169 km, there is a refuelling point for the bikers. In the literal and metaphorical sense, Joan Barreda is therefore full on... He leads the special by 2'42" over "Chaleco" Lopez, and is distancing his pursuers as the stage goes on. In third, 4'36" behind, Juan Pedrero Garcia is less comfortable, with Ruben Faria in his wake (4'44” behind the leader). Ivan Jakes is fifth and Cyril Despres is sixth, respectively 5'58" and 6'25" behind the stage leader.

OK, I'll go with that assumption for a second. So yesterday was a 220 km special (or, shortened by 30kms, 190km total). Helder starts, and because there is no refueling inside the stage, it means he has to calculate fuel at DSS for the whole special. So he fills up for say 220kms, + 10% for nav error, skipping out on, what another extra 4-5 liters? Yes! I hear you say, for extra performance!

Ok, bear with me. 4-5 extra liters of fuel, on -how much does the CRF weigh?- let's assume a 150-160 kilo bike, those 4-5 extra liters are about a 3-4% weight difference to the whole package...?

I'm no Helder, but that is negligible on a rally bike I would imagine, and if not, certainly not more important than having peace of mind to finish the damn day. Helder is no dork, I'd like to think.

Unless. And this is where it might get interesting. Unless he finds the CRF very quirky / the frame geometry weird / the rear suspension bitchy / there is an innate design flaw with how the bike carries it's weight when filled to the brim, and/or how the fuel is circulated when the tanks are topped up with gas.

Just pure speculation, wild guessing and pure innuendo...

See Im not a detailed guy (except when it comes to 3d maps ). So I ignored the detail, even the fuel stop positions, and just took an intuitive guess instead, based on past performance. Do you remember that Eurosport footage of Helder our front in the lead on his Yamaha and then walking around scuffing the dirt because he had no fuel! Silly, but these things catch the best of us at times.

__________________Dreaming of Dakar
-Everyone has a max speed, 90% of that max speed is much safer and easier, and if that 90% speed isn't fast enough at Dakar, you enter the snowball. - neduro

See Im not a detailed guy (except when it comes to 3d maps ). So I ignored the detail, even the fuel stop positions, and just took an intuitive guess instead, based on past performance. Do you remember that Eurosport footage of Helder our front in the lead on his Yamaha and then walking around scuffing the dirt because he had no fuel! Silly, but these things catch the best of us at times.